Your Money, Your Rules | Money Mindset, Money Management, Abundance Mindset, Budgeting, Spirituality
Ready to stop avoiding your money?
You might look financially successful on the outside, but inside you feel anxious about money, unsure of what’s “enough,” or exhausted from trying to get it right.
Even with wealth on paper, your nervous system can still feel scarcity. You’re not the only one, and you’re in the right place.
Hi, I’m Erin, Spiritual Wealth Coach, former Certified Financial Planner, and CFO.
I created this podcast to help you build true financial confidence, not just more financial knowledge.
For years, I chased numbers in the bank account, outsourced decisions to financial advisors, and still felt guilt, pressure, and never “enoughness.” I didn’t realize I was stuck in a scarcity mindset.
What changed everything was realizing that money isn’t just about strategy, it’s about relationship. To feel safe and empowered with money, I needed nervous system regulation, emotional safety, and an abundance mindset.
On this podcast, we go beyond budgeting and financial planning.
We talk about money mindset, wealth embodiment, nervous system safety, and creating money systems that feel good to use, so you can stop spiraling in shame, ground into your worth, and experience real financial freedom.
If you’re ready to trust yourself with money and create wealth on your terms, this podcast is for you.
I’m so glad you’re here.
Let’s dive in.
Your Money, Your Rules | Money Mindset, Money Management, Abundance Mindset, Budgeting, Spirituality
140 | Choosing Your Values First: Staying Aligned in Money Decisions
Work with me: https://tidycal.com/eringray/45-min-call-with-erin
In this intimate episode, I share a raw and vulnerable journal entry about a moment where I almost compromised my values for money. I share what it felt like to be pulled by the allure of financial gain while my body was sending very different signals. I also share the process I used to come back to my knowing.
Money itself isn’t the enemy, it’s neutral, it just is. And when we let fear or scarcity run the show, it can quietly pull us away from our authentic selves. Together, we’ll explore how to recognize the subtle ways we outsource our power to money, how to trust the wisdom of your body, and how to align financial choices with your deepest values.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- A personal journal entry about the temptation to trade authenticity for financial gain
- The false promise that more money will fix everything
- How small compromises can add up to outsourcing your power to money
- The difference between what your mind wants and what your body knows
- Why money is meant to serve you, not control you
- How compassion and awareness can guide you back into alignment
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Step 1: Join my Facebook Community.
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Step 2: Grab your free Human Design chart
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Step 3: Work with Me
Learn how to trust your choices, honor your worth, and feel financial freedom that lives in your body, not just on paper.
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From my soul to yours,
Erin
Today on the podcast, I wanted to share a journal entry that I have actually written. That was something that I was going through. It was either last week or the week before, but I wanted to share it because I know that obviously, this is something that continues to come up for me. I see it in my clients, I see it in other people that I talk to, I see it just out in the world and I wanted to share this allure of money and we have been led to believe, at least in the Western society I think it's pretty prominent in the world, but definitely in the Western society we have been led to believe that money is this holy grail, it is this promise like that. Once you get it, then all of your problems are going to go away, all of the feelings that you don't want to feel um are going to be magically gone. And it's so easy to get pulled in um by this idea that the more money that we will make, then we'll actually feel safe, we'll feel free, we'll feel whole. And what I have realized myself in clients and people that are extremely wealthy and this isn't to like blanket everyone right, but it's it's for people that are, that have money that haven't taken care of or addressed I don't want to say taken care of, haven't addressed some of these deeper I don't want to say taken care of, haven't addressed some of these deeper seated emotions that we are feeling. That you know, once we finally have this, this money that we are, after that everything is going to be, you know, rainbows and daisies, and what I have recognized is it's just not true. So today I am getting even more vulnerable or more intimate than I typically am, and I'm going to share a journal entry that I recently wrote about how money can subtly I don't want to say how money can do this how we, based on our consciousness and what we are feeling, how we can subtly allow money to pull us away from our hearts and our innate sovereignty and our innate power. So, as you are listening to this, if you are resonating with this and it is speaking to your heart and this is something that has been on your heart for a while that you want to stop outsourcing your power to money, to other people, and really start to create and have a relationship with money that feels safe and empowering and aligned with your values, let's see if we are a good fit for each other to schedule some time with me. You can just click on the link in the show notes. Okay, so let me read my journal entry. And this happened. Let me just set up the scene. This happened after I had had a conversation with someone who was going to help me grow my podcast also my YouTube channel, and really expand my reach.
Erin Gray:Because I do believe to the depths of my soul and I'll probably cry multiple times while this episode, but I believe to the depths of my soul that I came here to have my experiences with money early on in my childhood, so that I could transform them and I could obviously change them within myself and I could help them. I could help other people do the same and by doing that as a collective, we would be changing the way that people think about money, because I think as a collective. I don't want to make a blanket statement, but I think a lot of us think that money is a bad thing and I don't think that. I think that money has gotten in the hands of humans with a lower consciousness and I truly believe that I am here to reshape the way that we think about money and moving from a frequency of love and to allow it to expand our lives and to share it and to give it and to circulate it from a place of love and joy and freedom and peace and safety. And so I say all that to say I want to increase my reach and my discoverability with people so that they can hear my message.
Erin Gray:So I had this conversation with this gentleman and I had already kind of prefaced the meeting of like I don't want to follow the way that maybe most people have done it, so if that's something that you are kind of going down that route, let's just not even have the call, and he assured me that that would not be the case. So, as we were kind of diving into how he helps clients grow their podcast, their YouTube channel and things that he does, there were some things in there that, while I was on the call with him, in my body it did not feel good, it felt like a compromise, and I saw that happening. Like my awareness is there where I saw that, and I just asked him point blank because I think it's. I think it's a very the word that is coming to me is wise, but that's not necessarily the word I want to use. It is a very, totally fine like business practice to you know, like what are, what is the person's values? Or like you know, I don't want him to change his business practice just because this me, his client, is like I'm not going to do it that way, right? So if that is how he likes to run his business, then he needs to continue to run his business that way. So he, I asked that question and he was very upfront. He was like listen for me to actually tell you that it's actually going to work and there's a whole mindset thing around this. But that might be a whole nother podcast for another time, but in order for me to tell you that you know what, there will be success with this. This is the way that we suggest to do it.
Erin Gray:And in my body it did not feel good. So I never make decisions on calls. I always just like to ride my wave and I said, okay, thanks for this. I'm going to ponder this, I'll get back to you. But there was something that happened within me that clearly that there was almost like this tug of war of like, where I saw my mind like noticing that I could do it, I could compromise myself, because it would get me to where I was ultimately going, but it would be at the expense of some of my and I'll just tell you like he wanted me to be on, like all the social media channels, and I was like no, like I don't want to do that, and so I.
Erin Gray:One of the ways that I think that I have now processed things is there are tears that come up, that there is a release, and I was noticing this tug of war in my body. I was noticing what my mind was saying. I was noticing what my heart and my body was saying, and they weren't in congruent with each other. And I think you know, if you are in this space, or when this does happen to you, I want to just offer to you to give yourself compassion, because those are the times that we need it the most, because if we take action when we're kind of in that gray area, the the results that we are going to get is not going to be what we want. So, instead of just pushing through, not allowing your emotions, I want to encourage you to slow down and to really just feel and process what needed to be felt. So I did have some time in my calendar and I allowed myself to cry and I allowed myself to journal on what was coming up and I want to read to you what came through the allure of money.
Erin Gray:It's easy to get distracted when the promises of more money are thrown your way. It's a slippery slope if you aren't aware of what you are doing. It's enticing, it's illustrious. It slowly pulls you in because we have all been led to believe that money is the holy grail. We have been taught that once you have it and have a lot of it all of the feelings that we have been running from our entire life will be gone. It becomes this drug that we can't quit and so, slowly and surely, we sell a little piece of our heart and our soul for it. And at first we don't notice because we get that dopamine hit we were so desperately craving. But little by little we wake up one day and we don't recognize how we got there. But if we were to slow down and really give it some thought? We got here by ignoring our hearts. We got here by listening to our minds over our bodies. We got here by outsourcing our power. So that just kind of came to me. I was just like you know I was feeling that I needed to cry, I was feeling that I needed to process some of this and then it just like flowed out of me and it was.
Erin Gray:You know I have and I've told people this before like in years past, I have sold my soul for money. I have done things that, even though I was good at it, wasn't a full heart's desire, and I think when we come from that place, we can never truly feel fulfillment. So I think a lot of us, right, like we don't set out to trade our peace and our values and our joy for money. Right, this happens in such tiny ways, right A little bit at a time. You know, like I didn't start out with, like I always wanted to help people and serve people and make a lot of money. But I do recognize the positions that I've been in. They have come from a place of okay, well, I'll just work a little bit more or I'll just do, you know it's it's more so around working harder, um, maybe not doing.
Erin Gray:I loved financial planning, like I loved being with my clients. I didn't work like working all of the hours. Um, even in my family's construction business, I absolutely loved parts of the business and there were parts that I just didn't like doing and I felt like I had to. I didn't have the courage back then to say, no, I'm not going to do that, because of who it might disappoint, or who might put extra effort or work on someone else, or who might had to been hired. And so when I say compromise, what I, what I think about is compromise, is like creating a piece of ourselves, of of of who we are, of our values, you know, and it and it happens in these very subtle ways. So it might look like working with a client that you don't necessarily feel aligned with.
Erin Gray:Like one of the things I always ask myself is do I actually want to work with this client? And if the answer is no, then I will tell them that. So it's not just are they looking to hire me? It's am I looking to want to work with them as well? Right, maybe it looks like you're staying in a job. If you're currently at a job where you know it may, it pays you really well, but it's not something that you really want to do, but you're like, oh, but the money's so great, then ponder that. And I'm not. I think everyone has their place, everyone has their own journey.
Erin Gray:What I mean by that is is you have to, like I recognized that I didn't want to buy my family's company, and that was also a process for me to. There was some time involved before I unwound it, right? So it wasn't like I woke up one night, one day, whatever. And I decided, okay, I'm not going to buy the company and boom, I'm done, I'm not going to buy the company and boom, I'm done, I'm not working for you either. Right, there was this progression for me, and so I think sometimes some people can hear that and they can think, oh gosh, like, this isn't what I want to do, um, and I'm still staying in it. I think there's there's beauty in awareness. Right, there's beauty in oh, this did show me that this isn't what I want to do long-term. That is amazing, and you can also be working towards what you want to do while this job is allowing you to fund your current family and things of that sort. So I'm not an advocate of of like. I have this awareness and I'm just going to go make these decisions.
Erin Gray:I really think you've got to give yourself time and your nervous system and whatever time means to you. Right. Time is is not even a thing, right. So time for you might be weeks, it might be months, who knows? But give yourself the time and the introspection to really ponder this. So, if we are saying yes to things but our body or our intuition or what I say, you know, sometimes our gut is saying no to, we have to really stop and think.
Erin Gray:If we're saying yes because of the money, we have to really start to question what are those beliefs that we have underneath there that are creating us to say yes, because ultimately, that is coming from a lack place, right? If we believe that we could have what we wanted in the way that we wanted, we wouldn't say yes to the thing. Let my journal entry allow you to connect to yourself deeper, right? Um, if, if I'm willing to show up and be intimate and be honest and vulnerable about what I'm experiencing, I never I hope I hope I never like come off with like I've got it all figured out because I don't right. I'm continuing to be in this work and to up-level and to see where those old beliefs come up, but the thing that I have gotten better with is I notice them quicker now and wherever you are in your journey. It's totally okay, but I do recognize them and I'm able to kind of stop them in a much shorter time than I used to.
Erin Gray:I want you to know that money never does anything to us. Money just is and you've heard me talk about this on previous podcast episodes it's like I really believe that money came from God, from the divine, like, yes, man created it, but where do we get all of our ideas from? It's ultimately God, right, because we are God. God is within us. That is what I believe, and it is meant to be a tool. It is meant to be this beautiful thing that we get to use, not to have to master us, right, like we are meant to use it as a tool, not for it to allow it to control us. And that all starts with inside of us. You know, when we come back home to our bodies, when we come back home to our hearts, when we reclaim the power that we have had all along, you know we stop outsourcing it to money. You know we start using money as a tool, not using it or thinking about it and putting it up on this pedestal.
Erin Gray:So I hope this one resonates with you. I am always rooting for you. I appreciate the time that you spend with me every week and if this is something that you want support with, I would love to to guide you and to support you along the way. You can definitely do this on your own and it's a lot of fun when you get to do it with someone else. So I'll put the link in the show notes and until next time, you know, tune into your heart, tune into your body. Give yourself the time and space. Okay, I'll see you next episode.